Janine Bempechat

Janine Bempechat is a developmental psychologist and clinical professor emerita at Boston University’s Wheelock College of Education & Human Development, where she studies family, cultural, and school influences on student motivation and academic achievement, particularly among low-income children and youth in national and cross-national contexts. She holds an Ed.D. and Ed.M. from Harvard University and a B.A. from McGill University, and her research on the socialization of achievement and homework has been supported by the National Science Foundation, the Spencer Foundation, and the William T. Grant Foundation.

Bempechat is the coauthor of No More Mindless Homework, which focuses on designing engaging, meaningful homework that promotes authentic learning rather than busywork. She is also the author of Against the Odds: How At-Risk Students Exceed Expectations and Getting Our Kids Back on Track: Educating Children for the Future, and coeditor of Latinx Experiences in U.S. Schools: Voices of Students, Teachers, Teacher Educators, and Education Allies in Challenging Sociopolitical Times and Civic Concepts and Civic Culture: Challenges for American Education.